To Give Thanks

Guest Writer: Mommy

To start off my ramblings I will tell a story. One I must have heard as a very young child and I will assume it was my farm grown grandmother who told me, mainly because  the version I remember uses some colorful language I will censure for this post.

There once was a little bird who during an unexpected early snowstorm was blown from the warmth and shelter of her nest. She immediately cried out for help, for she knew she needed protection from the storm or else she would freeze. Now a sweet little but also very wise cow, out in the storm too, heard the poor bird's cry and knew she could do something for the bird that would give warmth and protection. The sweet little cow walked over and dropped a load of "manure" on top of the bird. Immediately the bird cried out, "How dare you! I am freezing, blown from my wonderful nest, and you drop a load of 'manure' on top of me." Continuing her rampage she went on, "I wanted warmth and protection and you give me stinky, smelly, disgusting, and down right obscene 'manure' instead." The sweet little, but very wise cow, took the insults and said, "Do what you may with my gift," and walked away. The bird, not realizing the warmth she was now feeling and the protection she was receiving from the storm wriggled and fought her way out of the pile of "manure." Now, something the little bird did not realize was the "manure" gave more than just protection from the storm. Along came a hungry and tired wolf, and the wolf seeing the little bird decided to make her its supper. Moral of this story, had the bird accepted the gift the cow had given she would have been protected and kept warm during the storm, and the stench of that pile of "manure" would have kept the wolf at bay.

Funny little story, I know. And to be honest, I do not remember the details to why I was told this story. But none the less, I have remembered it all these years. And this Thanksgiving in particular it keeps coming to mind.

Our little family has many things to be thankful for. First and foremost we have each other. There is the wonderful rock solid Daddy of our family, I make a decent Mommy, two amazing and miraculous little people, and two more miracles getting ready to join us. We live in a beautiful little home that is overflowing with love and sweet memories. And out extended family and friends that  no matter how crazy and wild our adventures get, they still hang around. But recently, and I mean starting this Tuesday, we have realized that there is so much we need to be grateful for.

Our own little tale began last Monday when I went into one of my scheduled OB appointments to look at Babies and Mommy. We were good, but my doctor told me I should probably try to take it easy the next little while, stay off my feet more and rest. Well, those two little amazing miracles I talked about earlier, are also a  wild handful. And with Thanksgiving coming up I decided to call Grandma and see if she would come and help out so that I could rest, yet still make it possible to do all the Thanksgiving celebrations. Soon after, I took Michelle to see her Ear Nose Throat doctor and opened my big fat mouth and told her some of my concerns about Michelle's trach tube. Well, she did some assessing in the office that she would not usually of have done and low and behold we were signing ourselves up for another surgery. Then Saturday came around and Ryker came down with a cold, where he got it is a mystery since we have been working hard to stay in isolation this last month. But luckily Grandma had come the night before and we were able to get a handle on it. Then Monday, Michelle started gagging, coughing, and sneezing. Well, any other child I would have said, "It is viral, wait 7 days." But with little Michelle, things are a bit different. We immediately started pedialyte and Daddy ended up staying up most of the night suctioning her with that constant cough.

Now we get to Tuesday. I started the day off with calling our Pediatrician to make an appointment for both munchkins so that we could avoid any emergencies on Thanksgiving and be all squared away for the holiday weekend, I was pretty sure Ryker was already on the mend and Michelle was only beginning to get sick but we have learned to not underestimate these two. I then hurried got ready for the day and went to my own doctor's appointment to check on the babies and me to make sure we would be safe for the holidays ourselves. Well, the appointment went like this, ultrasound showed happy healthy little boys who want to join our amazing adventures a little too soon, doctor then says to go home on bedrest. . .  or why not just go to the hospital instead and start on IV medication since we don't want emergencies this week. Not what we had anticipated at all, but decided it was probably the best plan. So Daddy brings me over here gets me to my room, makes sure everything is settled in and then rushes home to take the munchkins to their aapointment. Little did we know that Michelle was slowing getting worse at home. When Daddy got them to their appointment, we were reassured that Ryker was already on the mend, but Michelle was not. And this time, she was going to have to go to the hospital and get her aggressive treatments there. So Daddy now had to take another loved one to the hospital in just a matter of hours. And our wonderful pediatrician stated, to avoid anymore hospitalizations Ryker was to not come to the hospital at all. He needed to get healthy and stay that way. And so Thanksgiving day is spent in two different hospital rooms and at home. Separated, and not quite as we imagined.

Now one might look at all this and say, "Wow that is a pile of 'manure' that just dropped on your family like a bombshell. That really STINKS!" And yes, that is probably true. But as that story above taught me early on, sometimes I need to not focus on the unpleasant circumstances I am in, but sit back and see what blessing are truly around me.

1. We have each other, and no amounts of hospital floors, or miles from home will ever change that.
2. Grandma was already here to bail us out in an very unforeseen emergency. (Had she not already been she could not have come to our rescue for the winter storms have descended and are preventing Holiday travel this part of the country.)
3. We have amazing family and friends who pray and jump to our aid everyt ime we have another adventure. Honestly, we never feel alone.
4. We are blessed to live some place that has the skilled and knowledgeable Doctors and facilities that can care for our family. Even though we might not all be home together, we are not in different cities or even different hospitals, and that is truly a blessing.
5. And then there are obviously the blessings that we don't even know about, the hungry tired wolves out in the forest who are avoiding the stench of the manure and staying at bay.

We are grateful this Thanksgiving season! Even though things are not perfect and we are not sitting around our kitchen table carving a beautiful turkey and eating a delicious meal together using the nice china, silver, and crystal set aside for such occasions. (Those of you who know my true domestic skills know, that probably wouldn't have happened anyway.) We  still know that we have lots of thanks to give this day.

From our family to yours:

Happy Thanksgiving!!!